The Hunger-Artist by Franz Kafka

The whole town got involved with the hunger-artist; from day to day of his starving, people’s participation grew; everyone wanted to see the hunger-artist at least once a day; on the later days there were season-ticket holders who sat for days on end in front of his little cage

Reading these stories by the master of the absurd is like entering a dreamworld in which nothing, and yet somehow everything, makes sense.